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I have a 6-year-old Ragdoll mix rescue who is driving me insane. She never slows down. She sleeps maybe eight to 10 hours a day, and the rest of the time she is demanding attention or getting into things. I telecommute, and she's making it impossible for me to work. She's also making my other cat -- a very laid-back Maine Coon mix -- nervous.

I've tried everything I know. She's indoor-only, but I have a nice big screened-in porch with lots of cat toys and cat furniture that she can go out on when the weather is nice. However, most of the time, she'll stay out for 30 minutes or so, then come back in and start pestering me again. I keep the blinds in the house open so she can look out the windows. I have bird and squirrel feeders outside every window so she has critters to watch. She has every cat toy ever made. I turn the radio on. I tried scheduling play breaks with her during the day, but that just seemed to make her worse. I've contacted animal behaviorists in the area, but they only deal with litter-box or aggression issues in cats. I've tried to find kitty day care for her, but no luck.

I don't know what else to do. I can't deal with her much longer. I need to be able to focus on my job during the day, and my other cat deserves some peace and quiet. I've tried to rehome her, but there's not much of a market for adult cats with behavior issues.

And, yes, I've taken her to the vet -- three times, in fact -- to make sure there's nothing physically wrong with her. There's not.

Does anyone have any suggestions? (Please don't tell me to adopt another cat for her to play with. That's not going to happen, for a lot of reasons.)

I really hope she finds a new home, too. I hated doing it, but I had run through all the options I knew of.

What was really frustrating was lack of help from vets and behaviorists. The vets would examine her, run tests, find nothing wrong with her, and tell me sorry, nothing we can do, try another vet. Behaviorists would say if she's not aggressive or going outside the litter box, we don't deal with it. I understand if they didn't have answers, but I wish someone somewhere along the line would have taken the time to sit with me and help me figure out where to go next. I felt like I was dealing with her issues all on my own, and I couldn't.View Thread

Thanks for the suggestions, Rohvannyn. I've tried behaviorists, both in my area and online. Unfortunately, no one has a solution.

I have an appointment on Tuesday to turn her in to the city shelter. I'm devastated. I love her dearly, and the shelter is not no-kill, so I know she probably won't ever leave there. But I can't deal with this any more. She's affecting my health and my work. She makes my other cat so nervous that he runs away whenever she comes near him. She is the sweetest little cat in the world when she has my undivided attention, but I can't focus on her all day, every day. I'm out of ideas as to how to handle her. I feel like my only option is to give her up.View Thread

Not such an odd suggestion. In fact, I already tried that. It has to be really, really cool in the house -- around the med to low 50s -- before she sleeps more. Otherwise, cooler temps seem to make her even friskier.

She doesn't seem affected by catnip. She sniffs it and walks away if I offer her dried catnip or leaves. She'll play with catnip toys, but no more than she plays with her toys that don't have catnip.

Is there a test a vet could do for a neurotransmitter imbalance?

BTW, I'm writing this with one had and pushing her off me with the other. This is typical of how I have to work. View Thread

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